As an increasing number of applications and services are being made available over networks such as the Internet, and increasingly utilizing sources such as networked data centers, an increasing number of content, application, and/or service providers are turning to technologies such as cloud computing and Web services. In such environments, the hardware and/or software used to provide access to data and/or electronic resources typically needs to be scalable to meet the needs of various users at any given time. A user or customer typically will rent, lease, or otherwise pay for access to resources, and thus does not have to purchase and maintain the hardware and/or software to provide access to these resources.
Various approaches exist that enable resources such as data centers and Internet-Protocol (IP)-based networks to scale as the needs of the various users and applications increase. In some cases, this requires the purchase of large, expensive hardware that typically provides more capacity than is immediately necessary. In other cases, less expensive hardware devices can be used, but in order to handle conventional routing protocols the number of devices needed to scale can be quite large and complex to install. For a large number of resources to be provided, this can provide a significant expenditure and overhead, which can be undesirable in many instances.